Weekend

Delifrance

Sunday after work, we headed to Greenhills for a movie date. Upon learning that the next showing of Clash of the Titans was about an hour away, we decided to grab some lunch first. When we’re there we normally eat at the usual places: Max’s, Burgoo, House of Mini. On Sunday though, Alfred wasn’t hungry because he had lunch at home before picking me up in the office (his mom prepared early lunch for him). He was okay anywhere I wanted to go as long as he can have something to cool down.

Delifrance was the choice.

Whenever I dine at Delifrance, I eat something different. They don’t have a huge menu selection, but there are so many dishes that I enjoyed in the past and a lot I would still like to try. I featured Delifrance once before, a year earlier in fact, when I had my Spirometry test. Choosing a dish wasn’t easier this time around. I went with a set lunch, Tray Couture I think they called it. I forgot the name of the set I chose, but it had shrimp linguine and french dip roast beef sandwich. It also came with chocolate for dessert, bread sticks and a shot of some soup. It came with a free drink too, and I chose Iced Tea.

The boyfriend just ordered a tall glass of Strawberry frappe, it was very refreshing.

We were thinking of ordering more nga eh, but decided against it. These drinks aren’t exactly what you’d call cheap.

I was super hungry already but I still managed to snap a few shots of my tray before eating everything on it:

We actually thought that the bread sticks had a sweet dip, that was until I tried it. It was soup in a shot glass! I think it was a simple mushroom soup, but it was tasty and I liked it.

 

I dipped the bread sticks in the soup, but when I finished up all the sticks, I drank all the soup that was left. I was trying to go for it in one shot, but it proved too much for me. Hehe. I finished it off in two swigs.

Of course, I didn’t just concentrate on my food the entire time. The boyfriend and I did talk about stuff. Like his get-together dinner with grade school classmates the night before. I didn’t actually know he was going anywhere until after the fact, but that’s okay. He mentioned feeling like he didn’t really know them anymore. They were strangers. That got me thinking about reunions and seeing old acquaintances. I’m not big on those things either. I guess there are just a few people who I know things would be like time was not a factor. I’d rather meet with them in small groups and not in big get-togethers. I know of some people who keep tabs on their old batchmates. Networking. It comes in handy too for others, who use their contacts to find a job, or to get referrals for projects and such. That’s not such a bad thing too.

Next up, the main course.

I loved the shrimp and tomato linguine! Okay, I’m not sure if that’s exactly how it’s called, but that’s what I remember 🙂

I think though that this is just half a serving, so it wasn’t that filling. I figured I had to eat the sandwich too before I’d get full. I saved it for last because I love roast beef sandwiches and I had high expectations for this one.

Sadly, my expectations were not met. It was a little too bland for me, even with the dip. 🙁 Of course that didn’t stop me from finish it all off. Last on the plate was dessert, a small piece of chocolate. Nothing special about it, but it was a nice touch to complete the meal.

Finally, I got chocolate madelines to go. Something sweet to munch on in the cinema.

What’s your favorite meal from Delifrance? 🙂

Oh, but you know what? This wasn’t the last meal for the day. I’d reserve another blog post for where we had dinner after the movie and some shopping. 😉

Busy weekend

Funny how when this weekend started I had a list of blogging stuff that I aimed to accomplish. Now, when it is about to end, I find that I have not done half as much as I thought I would.

By this time I thought I would have written an insightful first post on my photography blog. But as you can see, it is still empty. I also planned on uploading my Project 365 photos. It is the 12th day already (I don’t have a Day 12 photo yet) and the total number of photos I have uploaded is ZERO. There’s still some time left, so maybe I can do this. But I also don’t want my first ever post on the new blog to look rushed.

Now I have to lay the blame on something for causing me to neglect this important undertaking:

– Part of the blame has to go to Facebook. Ever since they changed the way they showed updates, it’s just been a challenge not to miss important posts from people you really wanted to be updated about. So I had to go through Status Updates, and the News Feed. Then I would also sometimes click on the Photos link because at least for my cousin Candy, her new albums posted don’t show up in my feeds.

– Half of the blame would be to Facebook apps Cafe World and Happy Aquarium. It takes sooooo long to visit neighbors! I have less than 70 neighbors in each app and it takes awhile to go through all of them. But it’s nice to do that too, every once in a while. Then of course there’s the tending to the Cafe that takes so much time too. This is why I hesitate to start up with the other apps like Farmville and Pet Society.

– Then there’s MyLot too. I signed up to the site months ago but never really knew how to go about their services. I guess I was mainly turned off by the fact that no matter what I do, I just could not claim my blog there! It was supposed to be easy too, just put a code in my blog (and I did so many many times) and then click on the Claim now button at the site. But no matter how long I wait, it just doesn’t work for me. Until now it hasn’t!  Anyway, I signed up for the site because you’re supposed to be able to earn money by just participating there. For the longest time I didn’t know what to do. Finally, I just started going through the discussions – either answering or starting them up. I haven’t had much response but I’ve already seen how one could potentially earn from it. It’s not big bucks, but it’s not a lot of work either. I’ve always said that I’m not much of the forum type, but their discussions actually work for me. 🙂 Check it out.

– The lack in insightful posts, and the further delay on the launching of my photography blog probably shouldn’t be blamed on the above items. After all, what took up most of my weekend was this: sleeping. I’ve found myself sleeping most of the time. I wake up early (all things considered) but then I take naps of two hour stretches. So I can’t really complain. It’s not as if my time was wasted, you know? I did catch up on precious sleep.

Some would wonder why I don’t feel bad about not doing anything else on my weekends except go online. Oh, I do. But I can’t afford it every weekend. And this was one of those when I wanted to just be here and chill.

On a different note, our tenth anniversary is next Tuesday. We don’t know what we’re doing yet because our initial plans of going to Baguio can’t happen. We’d probably end up going to Enchanted Kingdom for the simple reason that neither of us has ever been there. Never. The only problem I see with that plan is that we’d have to rely on the EK shuttle to take us there and back. It would be nice to go to Tagaytay for the evening…

Maybe we’ll rent a car and have someone drive us. Or we’d ask friends (with wheels. user!) to tag along. Oh we’ll see…

After my shift on Sunday morning we went malling. No particular reason. There were Hyundai and Suzuki vehicles on display and we were admiring one particular model. It looks quite affordable actually, but you’d have to figure the cost of auto insurance, and monthly maintenance in. So maybe buying a brand new car really isn’t in our priorities just yet. First, I’d have to actually learn how to drive, and not just in theory. Then I have to make sure I’m financially stable. Yes, I earn a decent monthly paycheck, but I also have such obscene expenses at times. To cure myself of this, I’m thinking of tying in my other goals into when to allow myself to spend money. But I don’t have time to talk about that.

So what did you do this weekend?

2009 Halloween

If this was last year’s Halloween image, this year it’s this:

halloween closeup

Hanna (top right) bagged the prize for scariest makeup, but everyone was a winner.

AJ kept us all laughing the entire evening.

Next year’s party is going to be a lot tougher. Though the two older girls Shanti and Butchik were partying with us, they are not even in this photo because they didn’t want to dress up anymore. Jomar was out with his dad. The neighbors aren’t around because they also attended the same birthday party that Jomar went to. The kids are growing up. We don’t know if they’d still want to do this next year, or if there’s going to be enough of them interested. We’ll see.

Checkout our 2005 photos (I can’t seem to find photos of the first year we did this, or was 2005 the first?):

How did you spend Halloween?

More pictures next time. (maybe)

NBS Project Aral 2

On Saturday, we went to the Megamall along with hundreds of bargain hunters to purchase a few things. We stopped by The Podium (see the boyfriend’s related post here) before we finally went to the bigger mall.

Our first stop at the Mega was the National Bookstore, to do this:

NBS aral packs

and this…

NBS project aral

No, it wasn’t just to pose and have photos taken, silly!

I had heard through a friend that they had this donation drive to provide school children affected by the recent typhoons with study kits. All you had to do was purchase the subsidized kits, write your name on the tag, and drop them off in their boxes. NBS would make sure they get to kids who need them.

We grabbed eight of these, and it felt good to do so.

Now, go out and spend your 25 pesos on one kit. Or set aside a hundred pesos for 4. There’s a branch at Quezon Avenue, a bigger one at Cubao, and everywhere else (uh, most malls I should say).

For more info, check out the NBS Multiply page.

They will also donate 5 pesos for every person who follows them in Twitter, or fan them in Facebook. Go go go!

The Great Flood of 2009

September 26, 2009 – Typhoon Ondoy hits Metro Manila. Everyone thought it was just going to be another typhoon. One of the many many such storms that pass through this tropical country.

When I woke up at 430AM, the creek in front of our house had already risen and spilled over to the road. My mom asked me to check if the water was receding so my dad could bring the cars back down to our level. No – instead of receding back to the creek, the water level had actually risen. It was just a few feet away from kuya’s car. We woke dad up. He waded through the water and moved the car to safety.

At around 8AM (probably earlier), when I checked again, the water was gone.

At 9AM, the rain hasn’t stopped, and the water was rising – rapidly. After having breakfast, I took my camera out and snapped photos. I was surprised that the water was more than waist deep already out there on what was the road.

Ondoy 004

My cousins were preparing for the inevitable flood – and my nephew was still in good spirits to smile for me:

Ondoy 006

None of us thought that this would be more than just the usual flooding. Who would’ve known that our house, built with the highest flood recorded here in mind, would be chest-deep in water? And that the three-door apartment’s first floor would be completely submerged in water? That’s where my cousins and grandpa live. Who would who would have thought that we would wait until the next morning to see land again?

I would love to share more of my family’s version of the Great Flood of 2009. But I have other things in my mind just now.

No time to worry about my blog, of lost earning opportunities, nor of superficial concerns like acne, nor of getting my hands and feet dirty. It’s four days since the waters receded, and we’re still not done cleaning up. I went back to work last night, and I wish I hadn’t. But I did, and to work I shall be tonight. Which means instead of helping out in the cleaning, to bed I go. Maybe tomorrow, the photos will be ready for posting.

Please consider donating and/or volunteering for the victims of Typhoon Ondoy. A lot of people were more devastated than we were.

Here’s some info on how you can help: http://www.google.com/landing/typhoon-ondoy.html

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